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Green Finance and Investment

Green growth means achieving economic growth while reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, minimising waste and improving efficiency in the use of natural resources. This requires long-term investment and sustained financing. Public budgets have traditionally been an important source of green infrastructure financing. But given the strains on public finances, large-scale private investment will be needed for the transition towards a green economy. Governments have a key role to play in strengthening domestic policy frameworks to catalyse and mobilise private finance and investment in support of green growth. It is necessary to better align and reform policies across the regulatory spectrum to overcome barriers to green investment, and to provide an enabling environment that can attract both domestic and international investment. This OECD series on Green Finance and Investment provides policy analysis and guidance to scale up financing and investment in technologies, infrastructure and companies that will be critical in the transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient and resource-efficient economy.

What are the channels for investment in sustainable energy infrastructure by institutional investors (e.g. pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds) and what factors influence investment decisions? What key policy levers and risk mitigants can governments use to facilitate these types of investments? What emerging channels (such as green bonds, YieldCos and direct project investment) hold significant promise for scaling up institutional investment?

This report develops a framework that classifies investments according to different types of financing instruments and investment funds, and highlights the risk mitigants and transaction enablers that intermediaries (such as public green investment banks and other public financial institutions) can use to mobilise institutionally held capital. This framework can also be used to identify where investments are or are not flowing, and focus attention on how governments can support the development of potentially promising investment channels and consider policy interventionsthat can make institutional investment in sustainable energy infrastructure more likely.